And while the overall spending average shows a decline, a larger number of companies are planning to increase storage spending to some degree than those cutting back, according to a presentation delivered by TheInfoPro research analystNikolay Yamakawa during the recent Flash Memory Summit. (For more information on the survey, please read this 451 Research/TheInfoProblog post.)

Survey taps mid-sized, enterprise companies

TheInfoPro surveyed 265 Global 2000 companies with revenues of at least $1 billion; survey respondents were split roughly down the middle between IT executives and managers and architecture and engineering specialists. When ask to rank their top storage projects for 2014, 8% of the respondents cited flash implementation—the first time solid-state-related activities appeared in the top five of the project list.

Source 451 Research, LLC. www.451research.com

Some of that flash storage is likely to be deployed to ease one of the key storage-related pain points noted by 21% of the survey respondents: “delivering storage performance.” Performance was the second biggest pain point, trailing only “rapid capacity growth.”

Databases loom as leading flash apps

For current flash users and those planning implementations, database applications loom as the likeliest candidates to get a boost from solid-state storage, as noted by 38% of respondents. Next in line for a flash jump start are virtual desktop infrastructure projects (19%) and analytics apps (16%).

Among the most desired features for flash storage implementations, Quality of Service (QoS) controls ranked highest with 74% saying it was very or extremely important. Tools to manage flash data’s lifecycle (72%) were next, followed by cache coherency management (56%).

But make no mistake, when it comes to flash storage the name of the game is speed. When asked if they had specific IOPS requirements, 73% said yes—a big jump from the 52% who said they were looking for a performance boost last year. Delving deeper into the need for speed, 47% said they looking to deliver more IOPS to their apps and 21% need to address latency issues.

Still limited use of caching apps

For only 40% of server-side solid-state deployments some type of caching software is being used, but the rest of the flash devices are begin used for persistent storage. Still, a lot of flash is being used as cache or as part of active automated tiering schemes, as 48% of current flash users say the continuously move data on/off solid-state storage. Fifty-nine percent of respondents who said they were using auto-tiering rated it a “success” with 32% indicating that they’re experiencing some stress in their tiering setups.

Where flash works best

The key question for many companies is not whether or not flash should be a part of their storage environments, but rather where to put that flash. TheInfoPro survey indicated that 67% of current users have solid-state installed in their SAN or NAS arrays (hybrid flash array), 25% have it slotted in servers and 8% are using all-flash arrays (AFAs). For future implementations, 12% are considering hybrids, 13% are looking server-side and a whopping 22% are aiming at AFAs.

For AFAs, EMC, Violin Memory and Pure Storage are the leaders among those already using these arrays, with EMC and Pure Storage appearing most often as choices for prospective implementations. EMC leads again in the already-implemented hybrid category, with NetApp, Hitachi, IBM, HP and Dell following. Not surprisingly, server-side flash pioneer Fusion-io still dominates that market segment.

Looking at some of the newcomers in the flash storage sphere, Nimble Storage, Pure Storage and Nimbus Data have gained the greatest awareness among users to date.

SanDisk is known primarily as a PC solid state drive (SSD) vendor although its enterprise revenue shot up in 2013 and this is its second acquisition for server-side enterprise flash in 10 months.

Fusion-io was an early flash success story, turning its dominance in the PCIe market to an initial public offering in 2011 but fell on hard times last year.

“This will position us for a leadership position in enterprise storage,” SanDisk CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said on a conference call this morning to discuss the deal.

SanDisk last August acquired SSD and flash controller company Smart Storage for around $307 million. Smart Storage sells ULLtraDIMM flash memory cards that sit in the server’s motherboard and have lower latency than PCIe cards. Mehrotra said the Fusion-io technology complements SmartS torage’s UltraDIMM product, which is seen as competitive with PCIe flash. He claimed there is a market for both types of products as well as SAS and SATA SSDs.

Fusion-io expanded its product line in April 2013 by acquiring storage array startup NexGen Storage for $114 million. Fusion-io sells the NexGen hybrid flash arrays under the ioControl brand. Those arrays use Fusion-io flash instead of solid state drives (SSDs).

However, Mehrotra would not commit to the ioControl product. He did not mention the arrays when discussing Fusion-io technology during the call. When asked twice if SanDisk would continue the hybrid SAN array product, Mehrotra said he would talk about that about it after the deal closes. He expects that to happen in Setember.

Mehrotra also declined to say how the deal would affect SanDisk’s current early development of PCIe flash products.

SanDisk moved into the enterprise SSD market when it acquired Pliant Technology for $327 million in 2011.

The combined revenues from SanDisk and Fusion-io would have made SanDisk the No. 2 overall SSD vendor last year behind Samsung, according to Gartner’s SSD and solid-state array market share report published last week. SanDisk and Fusion-io combined for more than $1.6 billion in revenue in 2013.

According to Gartner, SanDisk jumped from fifth in SSD shipments in 2012 to third in 2013, passing Fusion-io and Micron. SanDisk’s SSD revenue increased 263 percent over the year (compared to 53 percent growth for the entire market), from $355 million to $1.3 billion and its market share grew from five percent to 11.7 percent. It grew more than any other SSD vendor in 2013.

While most of SanDisk’s 2013 revenue came from PC SSDs, it did jump from eighth to fourth in revenue from enterprise SSDs. SanDisk enterprise revenue increased 181 percent (compared to 47 percent for the entire market) to $375 million and its market share went from 4.4 percent in 2012 to 8.5 percent last year.

Meanwhile, Fusion-io’s revenues declined sharply in 2013 as its early large customers Facebook and Apple greatly decreased their spending while competition grew after storage giant EMC and others entered the PCIe market. Fusion-io switched CEOs in May 2013, pushing out David Flynn and replacing him with Shane Robison.

Robison is out now, too. Mehrotra said Fusion-io president/COO Lance Smith will become senior VP and president at SanDisk, leading the Fusion-io development and marketing teams.

Fusion-io fell from fourth in 2012 in total SSD revenue to eighth in 2013. Fusion-io’s revenue declined 18 percent to $339 million last year. It stood eighth overall and fifth in enterprise SSD revenue. Its market share of 7.7 percent of the enterprise market was down from 13.6 percent.